Method of decorating ladies&#39; nylon hosiery and hosiery so decorated



iii-ed 3,025,125 METHOD OF DECORATING LADHES NYLON HOSIERY AND HOSIERY S DECURATED Andrew W. Scannell, 12 Housatonic Drive, Devon, Conn. No Drawing. Filed Jan. 14, 1960, Ser. No. 2,336 Claims. (Cl. 8--62) This invention relates to a new form of decorating ladies nylon hosiery and more particularly to the development of these properties, after the knitting process but prior to and during the finishing. This application is a continuation-in-part of my prior application Serial No. 750,091, filed July 22, 1958, now abandoned, for Method of Decorating Ladies Nylon Hosiery and Hosiery So Decorated.

Womens fashions have historically created a style demand for ornamentation or decorative effects on ladies stockings. This ornamentation, such as rhinestones, clocks, figures and various other designs, has been attached to the knitted fabric by glueing, by spraying of material, such as metallic particles, by flocking or by knitting the design into the hose during its manufacture. In each and every type of prior hosiery ornamentation, however, the decorations themselves have been so obvious on the stocking and of such contrasting colors or materials that, as a consequence, such decorations or configurations, standing out from the rest of the stocking in such a pronounced manner, soon lose their style appeal and become commercially unacceptable.

The primary object of my invention is to provide a ladies stocking with subtle, pleasing and fashionable decorative effects which are visible for a short distance only but at a further distance, the decorative effect disappears and the stockings regain the appearance of usual, conventional nylon hosiery.

An equally important feature of this invention is the method I employ to not only achieve the pleasing shadow effects, designs or configurations on the leg portions of ladies hosiery, but I have found it possible to accomplish this in such a unique and novel manner that the design or pattern becomes integrally and permanently a part of the fibre of the stocking.

It is another object of this invention to produce decorations which are impervious and therefore will not deterioiiite after many washings and will last the lifetime of the stockings.

, A further object of this invention is to produce decorative effects, figures, designs and patterns on any and all leg portions of a ladys stocking. These decorations can be small, large, short, long, narrow or wide. All such decorative effects need not be confined to the usual single pattern design but have a wide and versatile application.

In accordance with my invention, the nylon hosiery, in the greige state, after knitting and greige processing, is treated with an essentially colorless, viscous solution of Type 8 nylon salts dissolved in a nitro solvent. In providing the pattern upon the hosiery, I prefer to employ stencils, although the application of the solution may be accomplished by any of the usual methods, such as brushing, spraying or sponge. The preboarded stockings are placed on a flat, black inspecting form with a blotter insert between the stocking and the board.

The stencil is then placed over the stocking in that portion where it is desired that the design or figure appear. The viscous solution is applied with a squeegee over the stencil and allowed to dry for a limited time period. While the solution deposited on the stocking is still in a semi-soluble state, the stockings are placed upon stainless steel standard boarding forms and then inserted into a standard steam retort and run through the conventional hosiery boarding cycle in which heat and steam are applied to the hosiery within the retort. The effect of the heat and steam or both bonds the solution to the stocking fabric and causes it to become permanently and integrally a part of the fabric.

After the boarding step as described above, the hosiery so treated is then dyed in a standard hosiery dyeing machine, using standard acetate dyes. The pattern area where the solution has contacted the hosiery fabric tends to absorb additional dye or color to give the design a more pronounced shading than the balance of the stocking, Where there has been no such application.

An example of the method of this invention for achieving decorative effects is as follows:

Six stockings, knitted of Du Pont polymer nylon, in the greige state, which had previously been preboarded (placed upon a stainless steel boarding form and treated under steam pressure of 19 p.s.i. for a period of one minute and forty-five seconds at a temperature of 250 F.) were treated with a solution (formula as follows):

200 grains Type 8 nylon salts 70 cc. methanol 30 cc. Zytel 5 cc. benzyl alcohol 2 cc. butyl alcohol 150 cc. Gental (dispersing agent) This solution was heated by placing the beaker containing the solution in a saturated solution of sodium chloride at a temperature of F. and agitated until the Type 8 nylon salts were completely dissolved. The dissolved solution was then applied to the stockings through the design cut-out of the stencil.

After allowing the deposited solution to dry for five minutes, the treated stockings were placed upon stainless steel boarding forms and were placed in a standard steam retort for one minute and forty-five seconds at a pressure of 19 p.s.i. The stockings were then stripped from the forms, placed into a dye net, then into a standard hosiery dyeing machine. The following dye formula was used in the dye bath:

128 grains of Scarlet B (Du Pont) 228 grains of Yellow G (Gycoluce Yellow G (Geigy)) grains of Blue BNN (Nyad Blue BNN (Tennessee Eastman) 4 lbs. of Unitone OB (Scholler Bros.)

2 /2 lbs of Treamline RR (Scholler Bros.)

The dye bath was started at 100 F. and agitated for fifteen minutes, then raised to F. in forty minutes, then rinsed, extracted and the stockings were allowed to dry.

The effect of the take-up of additional dye could be observed casually at a distance of from eight to ten feet, the design was more pronounced at a shorter distance, yet could not be seen at a distance of twenty to twentyfive feet.

The differential of the color on the pattern area varied in depth and tone in accordance with the density of the application. A deeper and darker shading being achieved where the application of the formulation had been more intense.

The pattern achieved by the process of this invention as described above may be seen only at a comparatively close range, and as the distance increases away from the stocking having the pattern, the pattern fades and soon becomes invisible, thus imparting a subtle shading of the pattern.

If it is desired that the stockings have a varicolored design or pattern, the same process as described above may be employed for one application of the Type 8 nylon solution. Then an additional application of a solution having a dye resist characteristic when used with the standard hosiery acetate dyes should or could be applied. Such a dye resist may then be applied to specific portions of the hosiery where it is desired to have an additional color or to lessen the take-up of the color from the dye. Dye-resist materials such as formaldehyde resins, which are non-receptive to standard hosiery acetate dyes, have been found satisfactory to provide areas of the hosiery where the dye take-up is lessened or eliminated.

In describing the method of this invention, the example provided has employed a specific Type 8 nylon solution, but it is to be understood that this method is not limited to the use of Type 8 nylon, but that other solutions or resins such as nitrocellulose solutions may be employed to provide a coating on the hosiery fibres and to provide additional dye take-up.

It is also to be understood that while the dyes employed in the example cited above were standard acetate hosiery dies, other dyes such as metallized dyes, which are soluble and include any of a variety of chemically combined metals (generally chrome) and which are applied to the hosiery in an acid bath, may also be used to provide a difierent effect.

Having described my invention, 1 claim:

1. In the manufacture of nylon hosiery, the method of decorating said hosiery which comprises the application of a thermoplastic resin solution to pattern areas of said hosiery while in the greige, setting said resin to the fabric of the hosiery by heating and dyeing said hosiery with standard acetate hosiery dyes.

2. In the manufacture of nylon hosiery, the method of decorating said hosiery which comprises applying a thermo-plastic resin solution to pattern areas of said hosiery while in the greige, setting said resin to the fabric of the hosiery by boarding said hosiery, and dyeing the hosiery so treated with standard acetate hosiery dyes.

3. In the manufacture of nylon hosiery, the method of decorating said hosiery which comprises applying a thermo-plastic resin to specified pattern areas of the hosiery in the greige, setting said resin to the fabric of the hosiery, dyeing the hosiery so treated with standard acetate hosiery dyes and thereafter finishing said hosiery.

4. In the manufacture of nylon hosiery, the method of decorating said hosiery to produce harmonizing shaded areas which comprises applying a thermoplastic resin to specified pattern areas of said hosiery While in the greige which are desired to be shaded, setting said resin to the fabric of the hosiery, and applying standard acetate hsiery dyes to said hosiery.

5. In the manufacture of nylon hosiery, the method of producing a permanent decorative effect upon said hosiery which comprises the application of a thermoplastic resin solution to specified pattern areas of said hosiery in the greige, heat setting the resin to the fabric of the hosiery, and dyeing said hosiery with a standard acetate hosiery dye.

6. In the manufacture of nylon hosiery, the method of producing permanent decorative areas on said hosiery which comprises applying a thermoplastic resin in solution to said areas on the hosiery in the greige, heat setting the resins into the fabric of the hosiery by subjecting to a heat of not more than 250 F. and dyeing said hosiery with standard acetate hosiery dyes.

7. In the manufacture of nylon hosiery, the method of producing permanent decorative areas on said hosiery which comprises applying a dissolved solution of Type 8 nylon salts and solvent to the areas of the hosiery to be decorated while in the greige, heat setting the solution to the fabric of the hosiery in a steam retort under a pressure of approximately 20 pounds per square inch for not more than two minutes at a temperature of not more than 250 F. and dyeing said hosiery with standard acetate hosiery dyes.

8. In the manufacture of nylon hosiery, the method of producing permanent decorative patterns on said hosiery which comprises the application of a dissolved solution of Type 8 nylon salts and solvent to the areas of the hosiery to be decorated while in the greige, heat setting the solution to the fabric of the hosiery in a steam retort at a temperature of not more than 250 F., and dyeing said hosiery with standard acetate hosiery dyes.

9. In the manufacture of nylon hosiery, the method of producing permanent decorative patterns on said hosiery which comprises the application of thermoplastic resin solutions having dye resist characteristics for standard acetate hosiery dyes to certain areas of the hosiery while in the greige, heat setting said thermoplastic resin solution to the fabric of the hosiery, and dyeing said hosiery with standard acetate hosiery dyes.

10. In the manufacture of nylon hosiery, the method of producing decorative patterns on said hosiery which comprises the application of a dissolved solution of a theremoplastic formaldehyde resin to specified areas of the hosiery while in the greige, heat setting the thermoplastic resin to the fabric of the hosiery and dyeing said hosiery with standard acetate hosiery dyes.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,355,265 Bock Aug. 8, 1944 2,443,450 Graham June 15, 1948 2,641,120 Bailey June 9, 1%53 OTHER REFERENCES Bic-k: Rayon and Textile, October 1950, page 85, 

1. IN THE MANUFACTURE OF NYLON HOSIERY, THE METHOD OF DECORATING SAID HOISERY WHICH COMPRISES THE APPLICATION OF A TERMOPLASTIC RESIN SOLUTION TO PATTERN AREAS OF SAID HOISERY WHILE IN THE GREIGE, SETTING SAID RESIN TO THE FABRIC OF THE HOSIERY BY HEATING AND DYEING SAID HOSIERY WITH STANDARD ACETATE HOSIERY DYES. 